Keepsake Snippets

When the economy crashed several years ago, I found myself facing the difficult decision of having to give up most of my possessions and find an affordable living arrangement.  Ultimately, the task was relatively simple.  Painful, but simple…if it didn’t fit in my car, it wasn’t worth keeping.

I have continued my life in much the same way.  Traveling light is liberating.  After years of hard work and a few moves back and forth across the country, !living in friends’ basements or staying on random couches,even sleeping in my car, I finally have a quaint little house to call my home.

Throughout all of my moves, I have been able to hold onto a few precious keepsakes.  

There is my favorite photo of my son watering my mother’s herb garden, my cute little trinket box from San Francisco gifted to me by my beautiful boyfriend, my miniature fainting couch, a cool yard sale find, a framed photo of the well in the yard where I grew up, and two wooden boxes filled with important papers.

That’s it.  What else does a person need?  Everything else is just baggage.  I was blessed with a loving family and amazing childhood memories. Despite some stressful events over the last ten years, I have found a great deal of comfort in simplicity.

Keepsake Snippet: What you own owns you.

Work Snippets

This is my side table, covered with snippets of numerous little works in progress.  Other than Sundays, my day of rest and regrouping,my other day off is often spent crafting.  My parents taught me various crafting mediums at a very early age and these hobbies have sustained me through numerous difficult times in my life  

And this is one of those times.  Moving from California to the North Woods of Maine was a difficult decision, mostly based on my financial situation.  Living near San Francisco became prohibitive.  And so I am here and trying desperately to make the most of it.

From working as an adminstrative assistant for a Fortune 500 company to making sandwiches for a tiny family business in this little hamlet, the adjustment has been a strain.  The pay rate for this region is fair, the tips help a lot,and as long as I continue to remind myself that it’s just a job, I might be able to hang on.  Staying inside on my days off is another trick I have to employ to hold onto my sanity.

Work Snippet:  If work was fun, they’d call it play.

 

 

Sunday Snippets

I look forward to Sunday every week.  After a long 50 hour work week or my (advanced) age, or the nature of my job, I am usually just plain exhausted by then.

On Sundays, sometimes I get dressed, sometimes I don’t.  That’s one of the joys of living alone and not having to answer to anyone.  Sometimes I simply sit in my favorite armchair and watch TV all day and sometimes I putter around the house…another advantage of being alone.

But mostly on Sunday, I take stock of what I accomplished during the previous week, how the week went and ponder what to expect for the coming week.  I have a long term and a short term plan in place and it is imperative that I remain calm, focused,and rested.

Today I rolled my tips and will make the weekly deposit that has become part of the routine I adopted to recover my financial status and that may ultimately secure my economi future.  Tips are snippets to some people, and perhaps trivial, but for me, having experienced homelessness and destitution, every penny matters.

Today’s Snippet: A penny saved is a penny earned.